Recovering Bitlockered Laptop

[dcwhitworth]

I've got a personal laptop that I inherited from my dad. As a result of updating it, its now asking for a Bitlocker key, which I don't have and wasn't aware of.

 

Looking into this I can see this is an issue that can sometimes occur and that the key can be in the associated MS account for the device. Not sure if I can get access to this but we'll see.

 

In the absence of being able to recover it this way, can someone give me guidance on how I can - 1. Clear the hard drive so I can reinstall Windows 11, will Diskpart do the job ?, 2. If I do this how do I recover the Windows key/licence ?

 

Thanks 

[DalekSec]

If you don't have the key, and its not stored on your MS account then you will have to reset, a wipe of the HDD while installing a fresh windows install will remove it, no need to diskpart. 

 

License key for windows is stored on your MS account, sign in with same account as the laptop and should re-license 

[DrCheese]

Aye diskpart will do the job of clearing.

 

Activating - I want to say most consumer stuff has the key stored in the bios so if you install whatever version of windows it came with, that should activate automatically

[dcwhitworth]

Thanks for the advice. In the absence of being able to find details of my dad's MS account, I'll give this a go.

[Olliedawg]

diskpart clean will definitely do the trick, you can then install a fresh copy of windows